UNC scientists to help set national research agenda for cancer care

Dr. William Carpenter

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been selected as one of two cancer research sites by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to help set the cancer care national research agenda and carry out accelerated practical studies examining the comparative effectiveness of cancer treatments. Dr. William Carpenter, research assistant professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Policy and Management, will lead an initial study.

Along with the agency and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., UNC will participate in a multi-center cancer research consortium called DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions about Effectiveness).

Michael D. Murray, PharmD, is the principal investigator of the research program. Murray is Mescal S. Ferguson Distinguished Professor and chair of the division of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

In addition to Murray and others in the pharmacy school, the UNC team includes investigators from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The cancer consortium is part of the agency’s larger DEcIDE research network, formed to support the development of new scientific knowledge through studies on the outcomes of health-care items and services for many diseases, including cancer. The cancer consortium will develop scientific evidence and new analytical tools to assist stakeholders – including providers, policy makers and patients – with decision making about the effectiveness, comparative effectiveness, appropriateness, safety, efficiency and outcomes of cancer-focused health-care items and services.

The consortium initially will investigate the comparative effectiveness of different chemotherapy treatments for advanced colorectal cancer. The study will be led by William Carpenter, PhD, research assistant professor in the department of health policy and management in the public health school, and Richard Goldberg, MD, associate director of UNC Lineberger and physician in chief of the North Carolina Cancer Hospital. To assess different treatments’ effectiveness, researchers will use secondary data from multiple sources to examine patient-reported, clinically measured, and claims-based outcomes.

The consortium is a multi-year endeavor. Subsequent work is likely to investigate questions in breast and prostate cancer and then other cancers.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.